Ernst Busch

Ernst Busch (6 July 1885-17 July 1945) was a Field Marshal of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht during World War II.

Biography
Ernst Busch was born on 6 July 1885 in Essen-Steele in the Ruhr region of Westphalia in the German Empire (present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). He enlisted in the Prussian Army in 1904 and served in World War I, and was promoted to command the German 9th Infantry Regiment in 1930 with the rank of Colonel in the Reichswehr. In 1939 he served under Wilhelm List in the invasion of Poland at the start of World War II, and he became commander of the German 16th Army during their offensive into Belgium and France. His army fought in the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union at the Siege of Leningrad and was made a Field Marshal and commander of Army Group Centre in 1943. However, after Operation Bagration's success in June 1944, Busch was sacked by Adolf Hitler. In March 1945 he became the commander of Army Group Northwest and attempted to halt the advance of Bernard Montgomery's British forces in Northwest Europe in the Netherlands, but on 3 May 1945 he surrendered German forces in the Netherlands, northern Germany, and Denmark at Luneburg Heath. He died at Aldershot, England in a prisoner-of-war camp at the age of 60 in 1945.